Many companies and other organizations operate computer networks that interconnect numerous computing systems to support their operations, such as with the computing systems being co-located (e.g., as part of a local network) or instead located in multiple distinct geographical locations (e.g., connected via one or more private or public intermediate networks). For example, data centers housing significant numbers of interconnected computing systems have become commonplace, such as private data centers that are operated by and on behalf of a single organization, and public data centers that are operated by entities as businesses to provide computing resources to customers or clients. Some public data center operators provide network access, power, and secure installation facilities for hardware owned by various clients, while other public data center operators provide “full service” facilities that also include hardware resources made available for use by their clients. However, as the scale and scope of typical data centers has increased, the tasks of provisioning, administering, and managing the physical computing resources have become increasingly complicated.
The advent of virtualization technologies for commodity hardware has provided benefits with respect to managing large-scale computing resources for many clients with diverse needs, allowing various computing resources to be efficiently and securely shared by multiple clients. For example, virtualization technologies may allow a single physical computing machine to be shared among multiple users by providing each user with one or more virtual machines hosted by the single physical computing machine, with each such virtual machine being a software simulation acting as a distinct logical computing system that provides users with the illusion that they are the sole operators and administrators of a given hardware computing resource, while also providing application isolation and security among the various virtual machines. Furthermore, some virtualization technologies are capable of providing virtual resources that span two or more physical resources, such as a single virtual machine with multiple virtual processors that spans multiple distinct physical computing systems.
As another example, virtualization technologies may allow data storage hardware to be shared among multiple users by providing each user with a virtualized data store which may be distributed across multiple data storage devices, with each such virtualized data store acting as a distinct logical data store that provides users with the illusion that they are the sole operators and administrators of the data storage resource.
Network Traffic Monitoring Technologies
Examples of network traffic monitoring and inspection functions or services may include, but are not limited to, intrusion detection system (IDS) technology, intrusion prevention system (IPS) technology, data loss prevention (DLP) technology, various network analytics or traffic analysis functions, network forensics data collection services, and so on. As an example, intrusion detection system (IDS) technology is capable of analyzing network and system activities in order to identify possible intrusion incidents, record the relevant information, and finally report those incidents to system administrators. An IDS is typically deployed as a host-based agent (HIDS) or as a network-based deployment (NIDS). IDS sensors in either deployment model typically split the network traffic and aggregate it for analysis. In conventional data center infrastructure, test access port (TAP) or other technology may be used to extract the traffic, for example at a switch or firewall, with minimal disruption to the normal flow of traffic. This allows the IDS (or other network traffic monitoring technology) connected to the TAP to receive all traffic as if it were sitting in-line, but without actually disrupting the normal flow of traffic.
While embodiments are described herein by way of example for several embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that embodiments are not limited to the embodiments or drawings described. It should be understood, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit embodiments to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.